What Do You Look For In a Conference? 186
Michael Lato writes "I've been a speaker at several Information Technology conferences and I know that I use conferences as both an opportunity to gain new skills and to network with my peers. In hopes of assisting others, I've started my own conference in order to boost the soft skills of computer professionals. However, we may need to cancel due to a lack of attendees. What are people looking for in a conference in the midst of this recession? Have we missed the mark in thinking topics like project management and remote team leadership will be well-received?"
I agree with this. (Score:3, Interesting)
This time last year, I had a job that would pay for all of its employees to go to about a conference per year within a certain budget. It would also give them paid time off to go.
Since then, that company cut many of its senior/expensive people (including me) and eliminated that benefit for those that remained. My new job doesn't have such a benefit and I'm not likely to attend a conference I have to pay for purely out of pocket and take vacation time for. Probably a lot of former conference attendees are in a similar boat.
Hate to break it to you... (Score:3, Interesting)
Have we missed the mark in thinking topics like project management and remote team leadership will be well-received?
Short answer: Yes
Long answer:
I personally wouldn't want to attend such conferences. Why? I'm not a project manager nor do I plan to be, and thus team leadership is another thing I generally don't need. Now, when I look at any team of IT pros, I see ONE person in that position, with several underlings to do the dirty work. I don't know about you, but in any of the companies I've worked at, there are AT MOST 2 managers for Information Technology and Services. One will generally handle all the in-house software and bug requests while the other one will handle everything else.
There are more people NOT in that position then there are IN that position. If you were to cover things that applied to my job specifically, like expected coding practices, I might be more inclined to attend.
And those Managers who ARE in those positions are usually too busy to attend a conference, they're on Call 24/7 in case a server goes down or Exchange goes nuts.
However, what REALLY draws the crowds is something new. New Technology, new methodology, new something. If you have something they haven't seen before, they want to check it out. Once you hook them into going, you can continue upon whatever you dang well please. If I book the time off for a conference about the advantages of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 working together, and you happen to spend half the conference talking about Management, I'll feel obligated to stick around till you get to the good stuff.
Needs a draw card (Score:3, Interesting)
Depending on your ambitions for booking targets, of course, but there are some very good people out in the industry who are very well known but still aren't rich. You might be able to entice them to speak for a cut of the gate. Go after a luminary and ask them.
Given your interest in the "soft skills" I'd suggest going after someone like Pamela Jones, Richard Stallman, Randall Munroe, Cory Doctorow, Rob Malda, or Simon Travaglia. People who would drive geeks through the door, just for the opportunity to meet them. Give them an hour to talk and let them sell their own merchandise.
I've only ever set up one conference myself, but I've seen they can be just as big an opportunity for the presenters as the audience. Overall, I believe it's a good thing to do.
I can only tell you what I look in a con (Score:5, Interesting)
I've had my share of security cons in my life. Invariably, whether I liked them or not boils down to a few simple points:
1) Interesting talks from interesting people. I don't want to hear about something I knew since 2 years ago from someone who was just accepted because nobody would willingly come. Have a lineup of people presenting something new and I'm there.
2) Spare the ad blitz. Concerning point 1, spare the corporate sponsored talks that peddle some of their latest crap and give little to no information. First, they're boring and second, the people who attend the cons I attend don't make the sales decisions anyway. I actually remember one talk by a certain poor fellow from a certain security company that I will not mention to protect the guilty who couldn't get his presentation done because everyone just started chattering amongst themselves without listening. And nobody was bothered by it. It was one of those "mandatory attendence" talks, so we were there. And made the best out of the situation. It was really embarrassing for the poor guy and him talking through a microphone kinda interfered with our conversation...
3) Make sure your guests feel welcome. Hire local students if you need cheap labour, but I want to get my registration done speedily and I want to have someone to ask organisational questions whenever I have one. It's kinda bugging me when I stand there and would like to know my way around and there's nobody to ask. Yes, signs help but not always. Also make sure the hotel bar has enough Vodka if you invite people from east/northeast Europe! GOOD VODKA! I can't stress it enough.
4) Don't put the most interesting talks at 9am. That Vodka needs time to settle, ya know...
Re:Free software. (Score:3, Interesting)
That is not Free software, just no-cost software.